Missing Afghan soldiers found trying to cross U.S.-Canada border

NIAGARA FALLS, Ont. — Three Afghan soldiers who went missing from a military training exercise in the U.S. over the weekend have reportedly been arrested at the Canadian border.

The men, identified as Maj. Jan Mohammad Arash, Capt. Mohammad Nasir Askarzada and Capt. Noorullah Aminyar, failed to return to Joint Base Cape Cod after a trip to a nearby shopping mall Saturday, according to a spokesman for the Massachusetts National Guard, which helps run the facility. They were not viewed as a security threat.

NBC News was the first to report Monday the men had been located trying to cross the Ontario border at the Rainbow Bridge in Niagara Falls, N.Y. WGRZ reported that the AWOL soldiers were in Canadian custody.

"We’ve heard those reports at the border and we’re trying to confirm that’s the case…and if that’s the case, what happens next," Mark Blackington, a public affairs officer for U.S. Central Command, told QMI Agency Niagara Monday afternoon.

The men were part of a group of 200 soldiers from six nations participating in the exercise. They were in the country legally and had broken no laws by failing to return to the base, another USCC spokeswoman told Boston’s WCVB-TV.